Jul 5, 2017

Happy nation day!!

Happy 4th July to all our American readers and friends! (We're nudging into the 5th here down under, but the sentiment still counts!)

Happy Canada Day to all our Canadian pals for 1st July!

I love the idea of celebrating a country's heritage and history...mostly, I love the idea of eating the kinds of food people eat on celebration day!

When my boys were younger we used to try to celebrate as many 'national' days as possible throughout the year so I could try to cook a signature dish (usually fairly badly) and teach my kids a bit about the diversity of our world and get them to eat something different.

Obviously, with 196 countries in the world I couldn't celebrate them all or I'd be in a constant state of cooking panic! But, my favourite day is Bastille Day 14th July because I get to eat pate and French cheese and eclairs and try (badly) to converse in French. I also enjoy India Day (Republic Day, 26th January) because of the yummy things we get to eat then too. A few years ago we happened to be in New Delhi for Republic Day and we saw the rehearsals for the celebrations which involved armed soldiers atop beautifully decorated camels and lots of marching. It was all very serious but we loved seeing the pomp and ceremony and the pride the country has in itself and its people.

When I lived in the UK we never seemed to celebrate being British, although each country has its own day; England being St George's Day, 23rd April (coincidentally, Shakespeare's birthday), Scotland has St Andrew's Day, 30th November and Wales has St David's Day on 1st March. (Although we did have a plethora of Morris dancing around 1st May...).

What's your perfect way of spending your national day? Do you cook national dishes on that day? If so, what? Do you cook national dishes to celebrate other nations' days?

17 comments:

Hi Louisa! I love the idea of you cooking meals to match national days. I bet the family loved it! Australia Day is in summer so I love spending it picnicking. Sadly Mr West isn't such a picnic fan so often it's a BBQ or if it's cool, roast lamb since lamb is our go-to Aussie meal.

Trying to find recipes that appealed to the boys was sometimes difficult, but we did enjoy celebrating other places, Annie. I love that you Aussies are so keen to celebrate Australia Day. A BBQ sounds perfect, or lamb...roast lamb is just about the best meal ever!

That is a great idea I should work on trying that :) as Annie has already said Australia day is 26th January in the middle of summer so BBQs and picnics with lots of lamingtons and some lamb on the BBQ thong throwing and swimming if you can.

Hi Helen! It is great fun to teach the kids and get them to eat something a bit different. I also tried to find music for the specific country sometimes too- great fun! I love the idea of thong throwing!!!

Wow, go you Louisa celebrating those days with your kids - never thought to do that but what a great idea!

Does NZ have a national day?

I always feel Australia Day as a bit of a double edged sword and really wish it was on a different day although we do go to my brother's house who usually throws a pretty big bash. I'm all for the beach cricket but not so much for the flags on cars and overt patriotism. I'm too conflicted to feel gung ho about it.

Hi AA, yes NZ has Waiting Day in Feb- and like you I feel it's a double edged sword as it's supposed to be celebrating the agreement the Maori made with the English and....yeah, history shows it was pretty one-sided...but I do think it's important to celebrate the country as it is now, to appreciate where we've come from as a nation. It's such a beautiful place and we feel blessed to live here- I'm all for celebrating that. Plus...to bring it down to basics, pavlova and a lovely Marlborough sauvignon blanc!

As a kid in the 60's The 4th of July was always celebrated at my grandmother's house. It was her birthday, and they lived on a 4 acre property overlooking Lake Michigan. 18 grandkids, 8 aunts and uncles, grandma and grandpa and other friends and family...always a huge picnic, ended by watching fireworks over the lake while picking plums and cherries off the trees and gorging ourselves. Since we moved to Orlando in 91, my house is at the end of a cul de sac, and between all the houses there were about 20 children, so until my kids were "grown" in the early 200's we always had a pot-luck/BBQ in the street with our own fireworks. My youngest brother and mom lived down the street from us, and he would drive to Alabama every year to buy "banned" fireworks, always a big hit with the kids. Thankfully, no injuries over the years. Now my older son has the holiday festivities at his house with a BBQ and fireworks on a smaller scale. The best thing about his house is it is on a small hill and we can see the fireworks from all the Disney parks from his front yard! I skipped out this year as it stormed really hard earlier this evening and my elderly cats aren't too fond of the fireworks noises. Now that my neighborhood is all grandparents who stayed, it was pretty quiet. Still made BBQ ribs and potato salad for dinner, followed by Strawberry Pretzel salad, a tradition in our house.

Wow, Laurie what lovely memories and how fabulous you could all get together as a family at your grandmother's house! Must have been wonderful and such fun! I love that you still get celebrate with your son and fireworks for free!! Happy 4th!!

Like Amy, I think of Australia Day with some ambivalence. And I really don't like overt displays of nationalism (like flags...makes me think of the NAZI party). But I do believe in celebration. And, to be honest, Australia Day holds a different significance for me as it's my wedding anniversary (getting married on a public holiday means you always get your wedding anniversary off, LOL). We usually settle down with fresh prawns and some lovely bubbles. And if lamingtons and/or pavlova are consumed at some point during the day, then so be it. :-)

I think I agree with you on the love of food- that's probably primarily why I did it!!! I also agree on overt nationalism with the flags etc and I worry about that too. But I also think it's sad if we don't celebrate who we are at least in a fun low key kind of way. Great idea to get married on a public holiday....will remember that and mention to my kids if ever they're planning a wedding (not for a long time I hope!). Love me some pavlova!!!

I'm trying to recall what I do for Waitangi Day... I can't actually think of anything other than keeping the crossables crossed that summer has actually arrived in Wellington then.I do like your idea of cooking special meals based around various countries national days.I'll be back to read the rest of the comments tomorrow or later in the week.

I'm a bit of a francophile from way back, so I too celebrated Bastille Day when the kids were younger with a French-style meal and a rousing round of La Marseillaise, which the rest of my family never got into. Although they did enjoy the food.

As others have mentioned, I have mixed feelings about Australia Day and the ugly patriotism this has enabled in some quarters...not to mention the date we are celebrating. So we don't celebrate this date and treat ANZAC day more as out choice of a national day, usually with a BBQ and (naturally) a batch of Anzac bikkies.

Louise, what a great idea, I'd never thought of it!I had the good fortune to be staying in Boston a few years back on the Fourth of July. What an amazing experience. The town was full of re-enactments and people walking around in period costume. I'll never forget it.

I have to admit we didn't do much for Canada day this year - just enjoyed the fact that J didn't have to be in the office and we got to have a chill day together. We used to celebrate Australia day with friends, always listening to the Triple J hottest 100 while having drinks and a bbq (and the odd badminton tournament!)

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